Due west of Kurth, on the fringes of the Flooded Forest, stands a lone stone tower. Built of massive stones, it has no visible door but does have windows at its spired top (seventy feet in the air) which are sometimes lit. Adventurers in the Vast sum it up in one oft-repeated phrase: "A good place to avoid." Its base is guarded by a stone golem which attacks anyone touching the tower or trying to climb, levitate, or fly within 40 feet of it. It continues to strike at such targets until they cease to move or else flee more than 200 feet from the tower, never passing beyond this range.

The tower is avoided by locals, who refuse to speak of it (those who do always turn up dead within a short time). Sages interested in the Vast have offered up several possible identities for the isolated tower's mysterious occupant. Some say that it is the abode of a powerful mage-possibly Maskyr himself, who they believe moved here as men settled in his vale, leaving his former tower as a trap. Others hold that an exiled mind flayer dwells here, or that even stranger creatures (wind walkers, a penanggalan, slithering trackers, or even weredragons) lair in the tower. Others yet claim clever dwarves live here, having hired mages to guard it for them with illusions of guardian monsters. Whoever is master in the tower, rumor has it that Lashan (the former Lord of Scardale who briefly held much of the Dalelands in a shaky empire and vanished when beset on all sides by aroused foes) fled here when his empire collapsed and has hidden within ever since.

Any or all of these things may be true. The minstrel Lieshann of Ordulin believes that the tower is merely the entrance to the lair of a gold dragon (or perhaps even a wyrm of greater power) who enters in shapechanged form ere descending to vast kingdoms below. Lieshann admits, however, that she has only seen the tower from afar when she mistook the track leading to it from Tavilar for the trail to Kurth; still, she often sings of the mysterious tower when performing at inns or taverns.

Those who have actually entered the tower and returned to tell about it maintain that Lieshann's tale is "bardish moonshine." These brave souls report that anyone flying or otherwise winning past the golem to approach the tower's three large, arched windows will meet three huge gargoyles flying out to attack and drive intruders away. These creatures, or their smaller brethren, also silently fly through the tower's passages and rooms to attack anyone gaining entrance to the tower by digging or magic.

Within the tower's walls are nothing but empty, dusty rooms and corridors - including steps and sections of flooring that flip over to deposit the unwary in pit traps and the like. Yet something that employs magic is lurking in the tower. Most adventurers agree that the rower's master is in hiding, along with all belongings and treasure, in the tower walls. A majority of them seem to think that they're facing a nameless lich or demilich, but others say the resident of the tower could just as well be a living wizard, perhaps employing magic to take the shape of a lurker above or similar creature that resembles the stone walls of the tower. Some have pointed out that the wizard could merely be hiding in chambers whose entrance is concealed by an intelligent, loyal mimic or other creature that looks like stone. Elminster once made a passing reference to "the Mage Who Never Dies" who claimed the southern edge of the Flooded Forest, including the tower, as his own demesne. The old wizard warned his listeners that the tower's master has prepared spelltraps that divert intruders into dangerous locales on other planes.